~ Acquired Brain Injury (ABI): from the acute hospital to early rehabilitation – more on: www.CaringforPadraig.org and www.ansaol.ie

Shed

Pádraig is doing well and was quite alert today, with both eyes opened. What I wouldn’t give to be able to find out from him what he is thinking, what he would like to do, how he thinks we could help him best. We keep practising with the buttons but it’ll take time before he’ll do any kind of serious spelling.

It would be hard to find anybody, and I mean *anybody* in Ireland who would say that the health authorities here are delivering a good service. To the contrary. I have heard french people saying that when they get sick, they don’t call a doctor or an ambulance, but a taxi. To the airport.

In a press release yesterday, the Neurological Alliance of Ireland, representing dozens of organisations, quotes one of the co-authors of the national strategy for neuro-rehab as saying that since the report was published the situation did not get better, it go worse.

On a personal level, we experience this too.

But I have decided not to waste time trying to convince people who do not want to hear that far better services are needed for persons with severe brain injuries. I will be working with people who want to change this outrageous situation. And there are many of them. In Ireland and all over the world. They will be the change.

Yesterday afternoon, four young lads from Colaiste Eoin, Pádraig’s old school, came over to help me to fill the skip and to clear the back garden to get ready for a new shed. We managed to get everything out into the front garden and on the road, but had to pull stuff back from the footpath into the front garden when the skip was badly delayed. But then, two other friends (I had never met before) turned up this morning to fill the skip (which had arrived late last night). Just when we were finished, the new shed arrived. I spent the afternoon clearing everything up. It’s great to see everything coming together.